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Alice Yan

An enormous headless statue of Buddha, believed to date back to the Qing dynasty, has been discovered in southwestern China.
The 9m-high (30-foot) statue, with its head missing, was uncovered on a cliff between two high-rise residential buildings in the Nanan district of Chongqing.
It is not clear when the statue was carved and local authorities are still investigating its cultural value, according to the district government’s information office, Chongqing Radio reported.
The statue aroused attention recently after a number of internet users posted its image on social media. Many residents who have lived nearby for decades said they were unaware of its existence.

“I had no idea of this Buddha statue,” a grandmother identified by her surname Zheng told the radio station. “We can’t see it completely, given that it is covered up by plants.”
The head of the Buddha was destroyed in the 1950s, said the district information office. A temple named Leizu, which was established during the period from the 1910s to 1940s, was dismantled in 1987. The two residential buildings were constructed on the site of the temple in 1990, and the sculpture was recognised as district-level protected cultural heritage in the 1990s, the authority said, although it did not say what it had done in protecting it.
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The statue faces the risk of rock decay and water leakage, while its foundation is unstable, said the authority.
It is built on the surface of a cliff, not easily accessible to the public. Earlier this week, officials removed a large number of dead tree leaves and household rubbish from the structure. 
With leaves cleared from it, local residents, for the first time in decades, saw how the Buddha sculpture looked. The statue depicts a seated Buddha with his two hands holding a round rock in front of his belly. His left leg and his wrists have been severely damaged, but the carved lines on his body are clearly visible.
Speculation was spreading widely on the internet that [the statue] dated back to the Northern Song dynasty, Southern Song dynasty or Qing dynasty
An employee from Nanan district’s cultural heritage department
A woman, surnamed Deng, who has lived in the community for seven decades, said that she was told in the 1950s there was a Buddha statue inside the temple, but from her memory, the Buddha’s head had not been carved out.
“The construction [of the sculpture] halted after the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949,” Deng told Chongqing Radio.
An employee from Nanan district’s cultural heritage department said it was not sure when or why the sculpture was built.
“Speculation was spreading widely on the internet that it dated back to the Northern Song dynasty, Southern Song dynasty or Qing dynasty,” she told The Beijing News. “At the current stage, we can’t give a professional conclusion.”

The official said they have invited heritage experts to investigate and will make a protection plan based on experts’ appraisals.
China’s biggest and most famous stone Buddha is the Leshan Giant Buddha, carved out of a cliff and sitting at the confluence of the Min River and Dadu River in Sichuan province.


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Giant Buddha statue found between buildings in China, but where’s its head?

A huge, headless statue of a stone Buddha, measuring 9m high, has been discovered amid a residential complex in Chongqing, China. Photo: Daidu

A 9-meter-high Buddha statue without a head was recently discovered in a residential complex in Chongqing, China, 9 December 2020. Surrounded by tall buildings, the statue was covered by vegetation, with a residential structure built on top of it. Most residents were unaware of it until the vegetation was removed due to a reconstruction of the building's external wall.[FEATURES]CREDIT: Daidu

Parts of King Herod’s spectacular hilltop palace, where Roman-era tyrant of Judea was buried, opening to the public for first time

An aerial view of the Herodium fortress, with the King Herod's tomb site and the theatre built by Herod the Great in the Judaean desert, southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. Photo: AFP

Conservators of the Israel Antiquities Authority restore ancient frescoes at the arches corridor leading to the Herodium palace built by Herod the Great between 23-15 BCE in the Judaean desert, southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, on November 23, 2020. - Israeli authorities unveiled new structures within King Herod's palace-fortress Herodium, which the tyrannical Roman era leader turned into his burial plot. The Herodium falls in an area of the occupied West Bank where Israel exercises full military and civilian control. The Judean desert complex, which lies near Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, was built by the Roman-appointed king, known as much for his brutal tyranny as for his magnificent building projects, who ruled Judaea from 37 to 4BC. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

A Palestinian shepherd tends his flock of sheep at the foot of the ancient Herodium palace built by Herod the Great between 23-15 BCE in the Judaean desert, southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, on November 24, 2020. - Israeli authorities unveiled new structures within King Herod's palace-fortress Herodium, which the tyrannical Roman era leader turned into his burial plot. The Herodium falls in an area of the occupied West Bank where Israel exercises full military and civilian control. The Judean desert complex, which lies near Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, was built by the Roman-appointed king, known as much for his brutal tyranny as for his magnificent building projects, who ruled Judaea from 37 to 4BC. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

Roi Porat, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and head of the Herodium excavation, speaks during an interview with AFP at King Herod's tomb site at the Herodium palace built by Herod the Great between 23-15 BCE in the Judaean desert, southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, on December 7, 2020. - Israeli authorities unveiled new structures within King Herod's palace-fortress Herodium, which the tyrannical Roman era leader turned into his burial plot. The Herodium falls in an area of the occupied West Bank where Israel exercises full military and civilian control. The Judean desert complex, which lies near Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, was built by the Roman-appointed king, known as much for his brutal tyranny as for his magnificent building projects, who ruled Judaea from 37 to 4BC. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

The Herodium palace, with King Herod’s tomb site and private theatre he built between 23-15BC in the Judaean desert, southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. Photo: AFP

Coronavirus-free Hainan, Chinese holiday island, packs in tourists for an end-of-year spending frenzy

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Surfers are seen in the sea in Sanya, Hainan province, China November 26, 2020. Picture taken November 26, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

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Drive-through exhibition attracts a new audience for art, and its theme – humankind’s relationship with nature – is timely amid the pandemic

Handout image shows drivers in their cars attending the Ahoy Boijmans drive-thru museum. The museum Ð was organised at short notice, and attracted 22,000 visitors, all safely isolated in their own electric vehicle, over the course of three weeks in August. Topically themed Ð probing humankindÕs relationship with nature Ð the sell-out show was a collaboration between the museum and the Rotterdam Ahoy convention centre. Credit: Ahoy Boijmans drive-thru museum / Ernst Moritz

Handout image shows drivers in their cars  attending the Ahoy Boijmans drive-thru museum. The museum â was organised at short notice, and attracted 22,000 visitors, all safely isolated in their own electric vehicle, over the course of three weeks in August. Topically themed â probing humankindâs relationship with nature â the sell-out show was a collaboration between the museum and the Rotterdam Ahoy convention centre.Credit: Ahoy Boijmans drive-thru museum / Aad Hoogendoorn

Handout image shows drivers in their cars  attending the Ahoy Boijmans drive-thru museum. The museum â was organised at short notice, and attracted 22,000 visitors, all safely isolated in their own electric vehicle, over the course of three weeks in August. Topically themed â probing humankindâs relationship with nature â the sell-out show was a collaboration between the museum and the Rotterdam Ahoy convention centre.Credit: Ahoy Boijmans drive-thru museum / Ernst Moritz

Handout image shows drivers in their cars  attending the Ahoy Boijmans drive-thru museum. The museum â was organised at short notice, and attracted 22,000 visitors, all safely isolated in their own electric vehicle, over the course of three weeks in August. Topically themed â probing humankindâs relationship with nature â the sell-out show was a collaboration between the museum and the Rotterdam Ahoy convention centre.Credit: Ahoy Boijmans drive-thru museum / Amie Galbraith

Drivers in their cars attend the Boijmans Van Beuningen drive-thru museum at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Photo: Ahoy Boijmans drive-thru museum/Aad Hoogendoorn

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The 9m-high statue aroused attention recently after a number of internet users posted its image on social media
Many residents who have lived nearby for decades said they were unaware of its existence



The enormous headless statue of Buddha, believed to date back to China’s Qing dynasty, aroused attention after internet users posted its image on social media.


Chinese culture

Chinese history

Environment

Giant Buddha statue found between buildings in China, but where’s its head?

The 9m-high statue aroused attention recently after a number of internet users posted its image on social media Many residents who have lived nearby for decades said they were unaware of its existence

The 9m-high statue aroused attention recently after a number of internet users posted its image on social media

Many residents who have lived nearby for decades said they were unaware of its existence